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Book Description
The Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:
New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.
Widely regarded as Henry James’s greatest masterpiece, The Portrait of a Lady features one of the author’s most magnificent heroines: Isabel Archer, a beautiful, spirited American who becomes a victim of her provincialism during her travels in Europe.
As the story begins, Isabel, resolved to determine her own fate, has turned down two eligible suitors. Her cousin, who is dying of tuberculosis, secretly gives her an inheritance so that she can remain independent and fulfill a grand destiny, but the fortune only leads her to make a tragic choice and marry Gilbert Osmond, an American expatriate who lives in Florence. Outwardly charming and cultivated, but fundamentally cold and cruel, Osmond only brings heartbreak and ruin to Isabel’s life. Yet she survives as she begins to realize that true freedom means living with her choices and their consequences.
Richly complex and nearly aesthetically perfect, The Portrait of a Lady brilliantly portrays the clash between the innocence and exuberance of the New World and the corruption and wisdom of the Old.
Gabriel Brownstein is the author of a collection of stories—The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Apt 3W—which won the 2002 PEN/Hemingway Award. His essays, reviews, and criticism have appeared in the Boston Globe, the New Leader, Scribner’s British Writers, and on Nerve.com.
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- Book Details
- English Books
- Rating:
(87)
4 stars 
3 stars 2 stars 1 star - Paperback 672 Pages
- ISBN-10: 1593080964
- ISBN-13: 9781593080969
- Publisher: Barnes & Noble Classics
- Pub date: Jan 16, 2004
- Dimensions: 20 cm x 13 cm x 4 cm Just how big is that?
- Also available as: Hardcover, Audio CD, Audio Cassette, Library Binding and Others
- In another language:
... and another languageLibri Italiani
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Wonderful character studies, smart dialogue, and an in depth look at human feeling. The imagery was gorgeous and the writing poetic. I liked Isabel Archer at first, but her cold manner of treating 2 men who were in love with her was a bit upsetting. She started off as a strong character, but she foo ... Continue
Wonderful character studies, smart dialogue, and an in depth look at human feeling. The imagery was gorgeous and the writing poetic. I liked Isabel Archer at first, but her cold manner of treating 2 men who were in love with her was a bit upsetting. She started off as a strong character, but she foolishly let herself get manipulated. Isabel chose her husband mostly because her relatives opposed it (never a good idea). The examination of her married life and her husband’s cold personality was horrible. Ralph was my favorite character because of his wit. His conversations with Isabel towards the end of the book were very emotional.
ISABEL QUOTES:
“I have always been intensely determined to be happy, and I have often believed I should be…but it comes over me every now and then that I can never be happy in any extraordinary way; not by turning away, by separating myself from life. From the usual chances and dangers, from what most people know and suffer.”
“No I don’t wish to touch the cup of experience. It’s a poisoned drink! I only want to see for myself.”
“I try to judge things for myself; to judge wrong, I think, is more honorable than not to judge at all. I don’t wish to be a mere sheep in the flock; I wish to choose my fate and know something of human affairs beyond what other people think it compatible with propriety to tell me.”